Asian-Americans in their 20s and 30s were
part of an immigration boom. The passage of the Immigration Act of 1965
effectively ended policies that put quotas on the numbers and origins of
Asians allowed in the country. Once they arrived, the children of this wave of
Asian immigrants generally didn't feel as much parental pressure as previous
generations to excel in more-traditional fields such as business or
science—in part because the previous wave of immigrants had proven
themselves in those fields.
"I lucked out. A lot of my cousins,
God bless them, they are doctors, in science or in business," says
38-year-old fashion designer Peter Som, who is of Chinese descent.
Today's Asian-American designers also say
relatives their own age who weren't born in America faced more traditional
career expectations. Jason Wu notes that his older brother, who chose to study
business, had more years of schooling in Taiwan than he did.
A New American Dream
"These Asian-American parents look
around and realize the American dream can be realized in other ways,"
says Frank H. Wu, author of the book "Yellow: Race in America Beyond
Black and White," published in 2001. "They also realize their
children are assimilated and don't face all the barriers that they might have
faced when they first came here."
Of course, some Asian-American designers
had parents who were adamant in their expectations of traditional success.
Phillip Lim, the 36-year-old Thailand-born designer who started a women's
fashion line in 2005, didn't tell his parents before he switched majors in
college from business to home economics and fashion merchandising.
He says his mother and father, a seamstress
and a professional poker player, respectively, expressed disappointment.
"They said, 'We worked so hard. We brought you here. Why would you do
that? No one looks up at us, we are the lowest class.' The whole guilt
trip," says Mr. Lim, whose first men's fashion presentation will be
tomorrow. "But that wasn't going to stop me from doing what I wanted to
do."
Similarly, Mr. Panichgul ended up getting a
business degree from Boston University to please his mother, who wanted him to
pursue "more lucrative jobs like business or law or being a doctor."
He didn't tell her that he wanted to be a fashion designer until he launched
his line in 2004. He had, unbeknownst to her, quit his job as a writer for
Harper's Bazaar to work on setting up the line. "She couldn't stop it
after that," he says. "It's a rebelling. Our generation kind of went
the opposite direction of what our parents wanted us to do."
A Relaxation of Pressure
Derek Lam had just crossed the line of
high-fashion stardom -- and profitability -- when the global economic meltdown
unfolded. WSJ's Vanessa O'Connell speaks to the designer about how his
business has adapted to the current economy
In some cases, designers say it was enough
for their parents if just some of their children pursued traditional paths.
Richard Chai's sister is a business executive. Korea-born Doo-Ri Chung, whose
line is Doo.Ri, says her brother is an investment banker.
Indeed, business success in the family
could be helpful. Ms. Chung's brother has helped her with money, as well as
business plans. Jason Wu started his label in 2006 with money from his family.
Asia's reputation as a
clothing-manufacturing hub plays a smaller role in the rise of Asian-American
designers than some might think. With a few exceptions, these designers didn't
come from families that worked in textiles or clothing manufacturing.
Today's Asian-American designers don't wear
their "otherness" on their sleeves as did the wave of Japanese
designers like Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto, who took the fashion world by
storm in the '80s with avant-garde designs. Many young Asian-American
designers' clothes, such as Jason Wu's blend of modernity with the intricacy
of couture and Phillip Lim's modern takes on classic looks, are generally
aimed at a broad mainstream audience.
"We are all so different with so many
different backgrounds," says Derek Lam, 43, one of the few Asian-American
star designers whose family was involved in the clothing-manufacturing
business. Though he grew up around that, he went to college to study English
and says his decision to become a fashion designer stemmed more from his
desire to do something artistic than from roots in the family business.
One factor helped ease the way: In many
Asian families, the fine arts have long been encouraged as a disciplined hobby
for children. With the mainstream success of Asian classical musicians,
architects and filmmakers, the arts have become an increasingly viable career
choice. Fashion has come to be seen as a legitimate extension of the arts,
especially because of design's emphasis on drawing and sketching.
Some designers say their parents were
supportive of their choice to study fashion design so long as they went to
what they considered the best schools for that field and excelled at their
studies.
"Their attitude was if you want to do
art or fashion, be at the best school," says designer Richard Chai, who
grew up in New Jersey and attended Parsons the New School for Design.
Many of his peers, too, took summer classes
at Parsons and the Fashion Institute of Technology while still in junior-high
and high school, and then went on to apprentice under famous fashion
designers, giving them skills and boldface names in their portfolio. Mr. Chai
worked as a sketcher for Lanvin, a designer for DKNY and a design director for
Marc Jacobs. Mr. Som worked under Michael Kors and Calvin Klein. Mr. Wu
interned for Narciso Rodriguez. Ms. Chung worked under Geoffrey Beene.
Fashion schools have witnessed an influx of
Asian-American students. Between 1998 and 2008, Parsons says, Asian-Americans
were its fastest-growing ethnic group, more than tripling in number. At
Parsons, "there were tons of Asians when I was there," says Mr. Som.
By contrast, Anna
Sui, who launched her
line in 1981, making her part of an earlier generation of Asian-American
designers, says, "when I went to [Parsons], maybe there was one other
Asian student, in the year before me."
Simon Collins, dean of fashion at Parsons,
says the school didn't have to do any special outreach to Asian-Americans.
"We didn't have problems finding Asian-American students," he says.
